City Link ‘didn’t want to sack staff at Christmas’

The boss of City Link’s parent company has told MPs he did not want to make thousands of workers redundant from the collapsed parcels firm on Christmas Day.

Jon Moulton, founder of Better Capital, insisted everything had been done to save the company from going into administration, but matters were taken out of his hands when administrators moved in.

He said the timing of the collapse was a “public relations disaster waiting to happen”.

Mr Moulton said the intention was to tell staff on Boxing Day that the company was going into administration, but rumours started circulating on Christmas Eve.

Labour MP Ann McKechin said the way the administration was handled was “utterly chaotic”, telling Mr Moulton that he must have known in November that it was possible the firm would go out of business. She accused him of not having any plans in place.

City Link had been been struggling for many years before Mr Moulton’s private equity company took it over for £1 in 2013. Mr Moulton said they had been unable to turn it around.

Mr Moulton said his company had lost £20 million, revealing that former employees will have to rely on the state for payments estimated to total £4m.